Variety Nominated for Record 96 Southern California Journalism Awards

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Gigi Hadid wore the Emi Jay Big Effing Clip in Virgo with a green Miu Miu dress at the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France.Sydney Sweeney wore low rise straight jeans from Cotton On while arriving to the Hotel Martinez in France. Taylor Swift wore a Ralph Lauren Collection Welington Shoulder Bag in New York City.

The U.S. rights for Cannes Film Festival award winner “About Dry Grasses” have been acquired by Sideshow and Janus Films.“About Dry Grasses” follows Samet, a young art teacher who is finishing his fourth year of compulsory service in a remote village in Anatolia. After a turn of events he can hardly make sense of, he loses his hopes of escaping the grim life he seems to be stuck in.

William Earl Leaders in the TV industry will convene at Variety’s in-person TV FYC Fest on June 7 in Los Angeles, featuring Christina Applegate, Kerry Washington, Elle Fanning and more. Fanning (“The Great”), Janelle James (“Abbott Elementary”), Rodriguez (“Not Dead Yet”) and Washington (“UnPrisoned”) will participate in a roundtable celebrating Disney’s TV female comedy standouts, moderated by Angelique Jackson, Senior Entertainment Writer, Variety. Jean Smart will present Christina Applegate with the 2023 Variety TV Fest Legacy award, recognizing her storytelling achievements as an actor and producer.

The Last Of Us star Bella Ramsey has called for “more space” for non-binary actors at awards shows.The star, who first broke out on Game Of Thrones, revealed earlier this year that they are gender-fluid.Speaking to Vanity Fair in a new interview, Ramsey discussed their “uncomfortable” experience submitting themselves for the 2023 Emmy Awards and how more needs to be done to make non-binary actors feel welcome and represented.“The categories at the moment feel extremely gendered with the language around them,” they said, going on to reveal that they ended up submitting themselves for an actress category despite not identifying with the term.“I don’t want the limitations in terms of the language in the categories to be a reason that non-binary actors like me can’t be celebrated,” Ramsey added.“And it can open up a conversation about how it feels – as long as I’m aware of the fact that it’s not ideal, but also that finding alternatives is really complex.”They went on: “For [non-binary people] to have a say and be part of those discussions and those conversations, that’s really important.“I just hope there’s more space for non-binary people to be recognised within [future] categories.”Speaking in a new interview with The New York Times earlier this year, Ramsey opened up about their gender identity.“I guess my gender has always been very fluid,” the actor said. “Someone would call me ‘she’ or ‘her’ and I wouldn’t think about it.

Kate Winslet and Jane Fonda step out in chic power suits for L’Oreal’s Lights on Women Award event during the 2023 Cannes Film Festival on Friday (May 26) in Cannes, France.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic Aki Kaurismäki, the deadpan cockeyed minimalist of Finland, has become the ultimate illustration of the principle that if you make movies in the same mood and style, with the same monosyllabic bombed-out hipster vibe, for a period of 30 years, your movies may not have changed — but the world around them has, so the films will have a totally different effect. In “Fallen Leaves,” the Kaurismäki bauble that’s showing at Cannes this year, there’s actually a scene in which a character uses a computer. The film’s heroine, Ansa (Alma Pöysti), loses her job as a supermarket worker, and to find another gig she rents an HP laptop at a makeshift Internet café that charges 10 Euro for half an hour. Apart from that, the movie unfolds in that scruffy and sparsely decorated so-familiar-it’s-cozy pre-tech Kaurismäki zone, where people still use electric adding machines or listen to a bulky kitchen radio that looks like it’s from the early ’60s. “Fallen Leaves” is set in Helsinki, the capital of Finland, but to our eyes it’s a weirdly underpopulated place where shopping, as a pastime, doesn’t exist, and neither, in any meaningful way, does conversation.

Eight feature documentaries and eight short docs have been selected as finalists for the 16th Doc Alliance Awards, presented by the Doc Alliance – the association of European documentary festivals.

Jason Sudeikis and son Otis, 9, pose for a photo together while sitting courtside at the Los Angeles Lakers basketball game on Monday night (May 22) in Los Angeles.

This Morning presenters Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby have been nominated for best TV presenter at this year's National Television Awards after a turbulent week which saw the end of their decade-long presenting partnership. The show itself is also up for the daytime prize, and This Morning's Alison Hammond, Dermot O'Leary and Rylan Clark are also among the 50 names longlisted for the presenter award.

Eva Longoria put Hollywood on notice during her Kering Women in Motion talk at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. The “Desperate Housewives” alum, who was joined by University of Southern California Annenberg professor and researcher Dr. Stacy L. Smith, is making her feature directorial debut with “Flamin’ Hot,” an inspirational story about a Frito-Lay janitor who invented Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. The film won an audience award at the SXSW Film Festival. As a female director, a first-time director and a Latina director, Longoria said she “felt the weight of my community” and “the weight of every female director” when production started on “Flamin’ Hot.” Speaking with Variety chief correspondent Elizabeth Wagmeister, Longoria noted that Hollywood does not play fair when it comes to films directed by women flopping versus male directors. There can be no margin of error for a director like Longoria, as one flop could cost her another directorial gig, she says.

Veteran telecom lawyer Anna Gomez has been nominated by President Joe Biden to serve on the Federal Communications Commission, a five-member regulatory body stuck in a 2-2 deadlock.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International Stuart Ford may have been named Variety’s Billion Dollar Producer, but the AGC Studios founder is already looking ahead to his next big milestone. “We’ve raised more than $1.5 billion in production financing and, the way our cinema business is evolving, who knows, in three or four years from now, I might be standing in front of you having achieved $1.05 billion at the box office,” said Ford. The executive was feted by Variety at a May 19 cocktail reception in Cannes. Many of the super-producer’s business associates and partners, as well as industry friends, dropped by the Croisette villa to toast Ford, who was given the honor by Variety’s co-editor in chief Ramin Setoodeh.

Harrison Ford had a hard time fighting back tears at the Cannes Film Festival in the South of France Thursday night. Ford attended the festival with wife Calista Flockhart for the premiere of "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny." This marks Ford's fifth and final movie in the franchise. Variety reported that once the film concluded, there was a standing ovation that lasted more than five minutes in the Palais des Festivals.

Still on everyone’s mind! Season 6 of Selling Sunset kicked things off on a high note with a glimpse at Harry Styles‘ past home — and an unexpected joke about his romance with Olivia Wilde.

William Earl Variety has announced the initial lineup for the Kering Women in Motion talks at the Cannes Film Festival. Moderated by Variety’s Senior Correspondent Elizabeth Wagmeister, this year’s talks include some of the most important women working in cinema and offers a mix between up-and-coming talent and iconic figures such as Cate Blanchett and Michelle Yeoh. On Thursday, May 18, playwright, actor and philanthropist Jeremy O. Harris, who stars in Directors’ Fortnight premiere “The Sweet East,” will kick off the Women in Motion series to discuss female representation in his work. Following Harris’ talk, actress and director Katie Holmes will speak about her work as a director and how the industry has changed in its approach to female directors since she first began working in television.

Waxword blog series.Reporter Sharon Knolle received two nominations. First for her examination of the sequel series to “Sex and the City” and whether the show negatively portrays women in middle age, entitled “Is ‘And Just Like That’ … Ageist? Why Carrie and Her Friends Seem Over the Hill at 50.“She was nominated again for a look at how women fare in the current comedy scene: “Forget Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle – Female Comics Say Stand-Up Has ‘Never Been Safe’ for Women.”Reporter Andi Ortiz was nominated in the Entertainment Feature on Film category, for her oral history of the cult that has grown around Disney’s “Hocus Pocus” since the 1990s, entitled “How ‘Hocus Pocus’ Went From Box Office Bomb to Disney’s Halloween Darling.“And film reporter Drew Taylor was nominated in the same category for “Golden Globes Falls Short of 300 Voter Goal by 101, Expels Reformist Member Frank Rousseau for Falsifying Stories (Exclusive).“Brenda Gazzar was nominated in the Lifestyle Feature category for “5 Years of #MeToo: How the Movement Spread Beyond Hollywood – for Better and for Worse.“And finally, critic Robert Hofler was nominated as an individual in the criticism of Theater/Performing Arts category.“I’m thrilled and so proud that the LA Press Club has seen fit to recognize some of the incredible work TheWrap has published over the last year,” TheWrap co-executive editor Adam Chitwood said.

Stockport County have paid tribute to former record-signing Neil Matthews following his death with cancer aged 56. Matthews played a key role in County's legendary 1990-91 season, scoring two goals in the club's final day 5-0 win over Scunthorpe that secured the club's first promotion in 20 years.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Margo Price and Charley Crockett emerged as leading nominees when the contenders for the 2023 Americana Honors & Awards were announced Tuesday in Nashville, with three nominations each. Allison Russell was close behind with two nods from the Americana Music Association voters. Picking up a single nomination each — tough enough, when there are only a scant six categories— were such highly regarded names of the genre as Billy Strings, Zach Bryan, Brandi Carlile, Tyler Childers, Angel Olsen, Sierra Ferrell, Nickel Creek, the War and Treaty, and Bonnie Raitt. Some of the more prominent names in Americana who have dominated the nominations in years past, like Jason Isbell, were between projects during the voting period. But the association is also known for wanting to promote fresh blood, which has resulted in artists who don’t necessarily have high mainstream media profiles, like Hermanos Gutiérrez, 49 Winchester, Caamp and Plains, landing slots in competitive categories.

William Earl Variety has promoted Jem Aswad to lead all music content across digital, print and live media platforms as executive editor, music. Aswad will oversee all aspects of Variety‘s music-related editorial operations and staff. He will also continue to serve as Variety‘s leading voice on the business of music, penning cover stories, deep-dive features, investigative stories, personality profiles and reviews. With his promotion, Aswad will also help steer Variety‘s music-related event franchises, including Hitmakers and Music Mogul of the Year, and contribute significantly to developing music programming for live media events. Aswad is based in Variety‘s New York office and reports to co-editors in chief Cynthia Littleton and Ramin Setoodeh. Shirley Halperin, Variety’s executive editor, music since 2017, is stepping down to become editor in chief of Los Angeles magazine.